Impact of COVID-19 on food outlets: symmetric or asymmetric? A case study of Amritsar
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights
ISSN: 2514-9792
Article publication date: 10 December 2021
Issue publication date: 20 January 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The present study is an intra-industry analysis, which aims to investigate whether the impact of COVID-19 on employment level, clientele rate, liquidity constraints and sustainability aspect of different food outlets is symmetric or asymmetric in nature.
Design/methodology/approach
With the help of well-structured questionnaire, the study has surveyed 80 food outlets in total by interviewing the managers and owners of these outlets. Food outlets have been classified into four categories namely international, national, local and street food outlets. Econometric techniques like MANOVA and Garret ranking have been employed to fulfil the objective of the study.
Findings
The results depict that the impact of COVID-19 on employment level and liquidity constraints is significantly asymmetric amongst different groups of food outlets, even though the decline in extent of clientele is somewhat same for all groups. The survival aspect of outlets also witnesses clear-cut asymmetry in results as big outlets have greater potential to survive for longer if lockdown happens again when compared to street food outlets as their financial availability and stability differ.
Research limitations/implications
The sample size of study is restricted, mainly due to lesser number of national franchise's food outlets available in Amritsar, though other categories of eateries were sufficient in number. Further, the study is restricted only to one district of Punjab state, whereas for future research, inter-district comparison can be done.
Practical implications
The findings reveal that the street food outlets may gain by fostering its online functioning. Similarly national food outlets are encouraged to alter their business strategies to revive their sales against their competitors.
Originality/value
This study is one of the explorer studies to analyse the impact of COVID-19 by making an intra-industry comparison for the eatery industry – considering four different categories of eateries. The classification of eateries helps in analysing whether the employment level, clientele rate, liquidity constraints and survival perspective have been affected symmetrically for the whole eateries industry or does severity of being affected differ asymmetrically. The study makes a contribution by adding a new string of dimension to the existing load of literature in the domain of hospitality.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The study is funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR, New Delhi) under scheme code: ICSSR 0877.
Citation
Dhillon, D.K. and Kaur, K. (2023), "Impact of COVID-19 on food outlets: symmetric or asymmetric? A case study of Amritsar", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 305-323. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-07-2021-0180
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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